TWENTY DOCUMENTARIES ON BLACK WOMEN

DOCUMENTARIES ARE CHEAP AND EASY HISTORY

Please find a few to watch

SOURCE: SHADOWANDACT.COM

1 — “Free Angela & All Political Prisoners” (2013)

2 — Another Shola Lynch film, “Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed” (2004)

3 — “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992” (2012)

4 — “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai” (2008)

5 — “Beah: A Black Woman Speaks” (2003)

6 — “Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun” (2008)

7 — “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth” (2013)

8 — “Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin’ to Tell You” (2013)

9 — “Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess” (2015)

10 — “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” (2016)

11 — “T-Rex” (2016)

12 — “A Ballerina’s Tale” (2015)

13 — “Iron Ladies of Liberia” (2007)

14 — “The Real Shirley Bassey” (2001)

15 — “Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee” (2014)

See descriptions of each one here: 
http://shadowandact.com/2017/03/28/15-documentaries-about-black-women-to-watch-as-womens-history-month-comes-to-an-end/

MORE DOCUMENATARIES

16-  Nina Simone:  "What Happened, Miss Simone?"  (Netflix)

I had already put the "Strong Black Woman" stereotype away as far as being something I aspired to. But this really put the nails in Strong Black Woman's coffin for me. I highly recommend watching this one.

17-  Ruby McCollum: "You Belong To Me"  (Amazon Prime)

Though this documentary is far from perfect. I might buy it to add to my black history collection.  

 

McCollum's story takes place during a period not talked about too much in Black History books except for the Black Renaissance. But it would have been better if black women had total control of producing it. I stopped and started it a few times to make sure I had a full picture of what was happening during the police investigation.  However, you'll get the full picture of what happened after this black woman killed a white doctor in a southern town in the 1950s if you know your black history and can read between the lines. You'll also have a better understanding of what black women were/are going through between the end of slavery to the end of The Civil Rights Movement and beyond.

McCollum's son speaks about his mother, in very sexist terms, at the very end of the documentary. But his attempt to defend (the white doctor or his father or men in general)  doesn't take away from the story that's told.  (Last seen on Amazon Prime)

18- Fannie Lou Hamer - "This Little Light Of Mine" (???)

(I've seen a very short documentary on Hamer. I'm pretty sure this is not it. It looks like it's been praised quite a bit and is being sold to schools. If your kid says they're showing it at their school, make sure you go "visit" that day because it's expensive if it's not on Netflix or Hulu.)

19-  "All Jokes Aside: Black Women In Comedy"  (New From VH1)

This features a host of talented ladies—including Martin’s Tichina Arnold and Insecure‘s Yvonne Orji—discussing how they deal with racism, sexism and the lack of representation in the industry. - 
http://people.com/tv/black-women-in-comedy-documentary-vh1/

20- "Venus and Serena"  (NETFLIX)

"Ever since Venus and Serena Williams started playing in tennis tournaments, they've provoked strong reactions - from awe and admiration to suspicion and resentment. They've been winning championships for over a decade, pushing the limits of longevity in such a demanding sport. How long can they last? In Venus & Serena, we gain unprecedented access into their lives during the most intimidating year of their career. Over the course of 2011, Venus grappled with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease while Serena battled back from a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. Neither Venus nor Serena let their adversities hold them back. They drew their greatest strength from each other."

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2376024/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

THE WHITE WRITTEN HISTORY OF SALLY HEMINGS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON

There are no known images of Sally Hemings
This is what someone imagined she looked like
Source: pinterest

"Sally Hemings, born in 1773 in Virginia, worked on the Monticello plantation of Thomas Jefferson. She was a nursemaid to his daughter Mary and traveled with the family to Paris. Though it was rumored that she had several children with Jefferson, both the family and [white] historians denied the claim. "

Source: http://www.biography.com/people/sally-hemings-9542356#synopsis

"The claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, a slave at Monticello, entered the public arena during Jefferson's first term as president, and it has remained a subject of discussion and disagreement for two centuries."

https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account

"Recent DNA testing has concluded [for white people] however that Hemings’ children are connected to the Jefferson bloodline."

Source: http://www.biography.com/people/sally-hemings-9542356#synopsis

"Based on documentary, scientific, statistical, and oral history evidence, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) Research Committee Report on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (January 2000) remains the most comprehensive analysis of this historical topic.  Ten years later, TJF and most historians believe that, years after his wife’s death, Thomas Jefferson [became] the father of the six children...[Sally Hemings is recorded as having given birth to] including Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings. 

Historical Background

In September 1802, political journalist James T. Callender, a disaffected former ally of Jefferson, wrote in a Richmond newspaper that Jefferson had for many years "kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves." "Her name is Sally," Callender continued, adding that Jefferson had "several children" by her..."

Source:  https://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account

"Jefferson traveled to Paris in 1784 to serve as the American minister to France. He took his eldest daughter, also named Martha, with him, while his two younger daughters, Mary and Lucy, stayed with their relatives, as did Hemings. After Lucy Jefferson died of whooping cough, Jefferson called Mary to Paris in the summer of 1787. The 14-year-old Hemings came with her. Hemings spent the next two years living with the Jeffersons in Paris, along with her brother, James, who served as Jefferson's personal servant. There is strong evidence to suggest that during this time, Jefferson and Hemings began a sexual relationship..."

Source: http://www.biography.com/people/sally-hemings-9542356 

* * * * *

LOOK HERE:

A 14 year old girl who is owned by a forty-plus old white man cannot "begin a sexual relationship" with someone who owns her. I'd argue that a 40 year old slave cannot "begin a sexual relationship." Both of those relationships are rape because the slave has no choice. And raping a 14 year old makes Jefferson a pedophile or something one half step a way from being a pedophile.
Some will argue that "women got married younger back then" The lack of consent aside, I've traced my family's history and the women consistently got married between 19 and 21 years of age. It's amazing how consistent my family's history is on my mother and my father's side.

Jefferson raped a child. Period.

When white historians lie and shade history in their own favor they make movies where Sally is a curvy woman seducing her master. 

This is a still from the movie JEFFERSON IN PARIS.  

The black female stereotype in white imaginations everywhere has the black girl as overly overtly and overly sexual from a young age -- as compared to innocent white girls. For centuries this has made it easier for white historians to believe a man can own a woman and still have the relationship be consensual enough to call it "an affair."

In 12 YEARS A SLAVE, a black filmmaker makes sure that there are two realistic depictions of black women "voluntarily" having sexual relations with white men in the film. 

One of the stories in the movie is about a woman who slept with her white master and kept him happy to save her own life and eventually her children's lives -- which worked until he died. In the movie, we meet her after she's been sold as a result of his death. Her children are taken away and sold elsewhere. 

The other black woman, played by Alfre Woodard, smiles at the white owner has pleasant sex with her in exchange for dressing her in fine linens and letting her sit pretty and drink tea on the porch while he works. This black woman tells Lupita N'yongo's character that there's a special place in hell for all the white slave owners -- because the filmmaker has this character recognizing herself as raped. 

We'll never know how a 14 year old girl like Hemings responded to being forcibly raped or blackmail raped or seduced-by-owner rape. The thing we do know is that the white washing of history has left Thomas Jefferson as one of those superior caliber white men in the minds of white people. 

And anything that white historians add to white supremacy is deadly for black and brown people. 
Donald Trump riding a wave of white supremacy into the White House along with the subsequent rise in hate crimes is proof of this.

Previously unpublished data by the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism show that hate crimes in at least six major urban centers, including New York City, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, registered double-digit increases last year.

Among them:

•  New York City notched an uptick of 24 percent in hate crimes, the highest in over a decade.

•  New York state had an increase of 20 percent.

•  Chicago saw a rise of 24 percent, the highest since at least 2010.

•  Cincinnati, Ohio, saw hate crimes jump by 38 percent.

•  Columbus, Ohio, reported an increase of nearly 10 percent.

•  Montgomery County in Maryland, adjacent to the nation’s capital, had an increase of more than 42 percent.

•  Seattle, Washington, registered an increase of 6 percent in malicious harassment.

http://www.voanews.com/a/us-hate-crimes-rising-particularly-in-big-cities/3756604.html 

THE ACCURATE TELLING OF HISTORY MATTERS. 

Yeah, history means "his story." The victor (dominate-er) gets to frame the narrative more often than not. But sometimes a lie is a lie is a lie when someone is deliberately white washing history.

Read the fine print.This movie is about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
And the full title says, "Sally Hemings An American Love Story."
And then below the title,  "Bound By Slavery Freed By Love" 

This DVD/Movie cover doesn't just reflect a lie being told about Sally Hemings. The white history articles and white history books and white history movies mentioned above reflect the widespread lies that white people have been telling themselves about the horrors of slavery for centuries. 

This movie SALLY HEMINGS AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY has 4.5 stars out of 5 star rating and is being sold on Amazon.com right now. White people are still telling themselves that white supremacy and slavery was not the horror that it was.

Make no mistake, the cotton was being picked in the south, being processed into material in the north, and sold to Britain. All of the white people in these areas benefited greatly from slavery. American and British capitalism and wealth was built on slavery. We are all benefiting from it to this day (some more than others) That's why so many white people are STILL very invested in making slavery look less horrible than it was.

It's ridiculous that www.biography.com and monticello.org have romance language or white-washy neutral arrangement of language that hides the fact that Jefferson in Paris at 44 years of age while Hemings was 14 when he sent for Hemings (his wife's half sister) the in the very same year his wife died.

There's no romance here or anywhere there's ownership of a black girl child --- depicted as grown woman in white movie after white movie and a white history book near you.

 Bottom Line: Your history source always matters.

Furthermore, 

the personal history of your historian matters

which includes that person's 

race, ethnicity, and gender. 

Some historians try to overcome their personal history and some do not. White people have a crappy record of refusing to overcome their personal histories in an attempt to tell an accurate history. Furthermore, many white historians cannot separate the description "American" from description "white people" when writing about history which is another discussion altogether.
Black people, brown people, and especially white people should read about black history written by black people. You should always read a people's history from one of it's own. When that's not possible, make sure to check and double check what's being said by getting multiple sources....and even then find a source of history from the same demographic that's being reported about.
 
When you get down to wanting to know about black women specifically, refine your sources even more. Read about black women's history as written by black women. Because male supremacy is real too, inside and outside the black community. I learned all kinds of things about Martin Luther King, SNCC, and Marcus Garvey's wife Amy Garvey that I'd never heard before thanks to the writings of black women. 

* * * * * 

And now, a black view of Thomas JeffersonHeadline

The Real (Despicable) Thomas Jefferson

• ---> Michael Coard
 
• Apr 9, 2016

 READ IT HERE:
http://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/the-real-despicable-thomas-jefferson/article_1bbc31a3-74dd-573f-acb0-ad38ab7bc7da.html








THANKHERFORSURVIVING.BLOGSPOT.COM

SECOND WAVE FEMINISM WITHOUT WHITE WOMEN

FIRST WAVE FEMINISM WITHOUT WHITE WOMEN

As you may or may not know, first wave feminism officially began for white women in 1848 at a meeting in Seneca Falls, NY

However, Maria Stewart, a black woman, was the first American woman to address women's rights in public in 1832 -- not Lucretia Mott, not Elizabeth Cady Stanton. And Frederick Douglass became the first American man to address women's rights a few years after that.



That's right. Feminism began among black women before white women in the U.S. And this makes perfect sense. Black women and black men had to do what they had to do regardless of fashionable gender roles -- when we were first brought here.


There are posts on this blog that cover this same information in a lot more detail, a lot of it from the book "When and Where We Enter." But if you can put up with a perky white woman giving laying out some black women's history, you'll get a thumbnail sketch of the true black origins of American feminism a lot more quickly.







Second Video on

Second Wave Feminism Tomorrow

MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THEIR OWN STORY

If you love your children set their minds loose in the fullness of black history. Make sure your children, girls and boys, both are reading real life stories of black and brown women over the course of their childhood into adulthood. Make sure they know their black and brown herstory, recent and distant past. We, as women of color, have a heroic past  that we know very little about. Our female ancestors present us with our own perspectives on the black history  that we THINK we already know.

Make sure your children know the stories of 

ALICIA GARZA   March 4 1981

(black lives matter creator) 

PATRISSE CULLORS, 

(black lives matter creator)) 

OPAL TOMETI 

(black lives matter creator) 

Aisha Tyler  

Sept 18 1970

KIMBERLE CRENSHAW 

(INTERSECTIONALITY SOCIOLOGIST)  

May 5 1959  

J K Rowling, 

(HARRY POTTER) 

July 31 1965

Maria W Stewart,  

(FIRST FEMINIST SPEAKER)

1803

Gabrielle Union, 

Actress

October 29 1972

PAULI MURRAY,  

(Civil Rights Attorney)

November 20 1910

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 

(SUPREME COURT JUSTICE) 

March 15 1933

Diane Nash, 

(CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER)  

May 15 1938

ANNA ARNOLD HEDGEMAN, 

(CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER, N.O.W. FOUNDING MEMBER)

July 5 1899

Zora Neale Hurston

(WRITER)

January 1891

Septima Clarke 

(CIVIL RIGHTS TEACHER) 

May 3 1898

Aja Monet 

(POET, SAY HER NAME ACTIVIST) 

August 21 1987

Sonia Sotomayor, 

(SUPREME COURT JUSTICE) 

June 25 1954

TYRA BANKS 

(MODEL/SPEAKER) - 

TYRA BANKS (Light Skinned Woman Keeping Images of DARK SKINNED Black Women Represented In America’s Top Model) 

December 4 1973 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/20/tyra-banks-feminist-yahoo-interview_n_6014274.html

Salma Hayek, 

(ACTRESS/FILM MAKER)

December 2 1966 http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/04/salma-hayek-feminist-women-the-prophet-interview

Shonda Rhimes 

(WRITER/PRODUCER BROWNING HOLLYWOOD 

ONE ACTOR/ACTRESS/DIRECTOR AND MUSIC ROYALTY AT A TIME)  

January 13 1970

Kerry Washington, 

January 31 1977

Viola Davis,

(ACTRESS)

August 11 1965

Margaret Cho

(COMEDIAN) 

December 5 1968

Tracee Ellis Ross

(ACTRESS)

October 29 1972 

Gina Prince Bythewood 

(DIRECTOR)

June 10 1969

Angela Bassett

(ACTRESS/DIRECTOR)

August 16 1958 

BARBARA SMITH,

(ACTIVIST/WRITER) 

December 16 1946

ANNA JULIA COOPER,

(ACTIVIST/WRITER)

August 10 1858 

Dorothy Height

March 24 1912

Ferdinand Barnett

(ATTORNEY/ACTIVIST)

February 18 1852

Jada Pinkett-Smith,

(ACTRESS/ACTIVIST)

Sept 18 1971

IDA B WELLS 

(JOURNALIST, FIRST ANTI-LYNCHING RESEARCHING SOCIOLOGIST, NAACP FOUNDING MEMBER)  

July 16 1862

JOAN MORGAN 

(WRITER/ACTIVIST - HIP HOP FEMINIST)

?

bell hooks  

(WRITER/ACTIVIST)

Sept 25 1952

Melissa Harris-Perry

(WRITER/TELEVISION ACTIVIST) 

October 2, 1973

Malaya Yousafzai

(ACTIVIST) 

July 12, 1997

Beyonce, 

(SINGER)

September 4, 1981

Don McPherson

(EX FOOTBALL PLAYER/FEMINIST ACTIVIST) 

April 2 1965

DELORES HUERTA, 

April 10, 1930

ANGELA DAVIS, 

(CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST)

January 26, 1944

Daisy Bates 

(CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST)

November 11, 1914

Rosa Parks

(CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST)

February 4, 1913

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE 

(WRITER) 

September 15 1977

Coretta Scott-King  

April 27, 1927

(Never self-declared but this women's rights activist regularly showed up/spoke at feminist events like those hosted by Delores C Tucker) 

DELORES C TUCKER,

ACTIVIST

October 4 1927

Shirley Chisholm

November 30 1924 - 2005

India Arie 

(MUSICIAN)

October 3, 1975

BEVERLY BOND 

(BLACK GIRLS ROCK CREATOR)

December 19 

Jessica R Williams 

(Daily Show Comedian) 

July 31, 1989

Mara Brock Akil 

(PRODUCER/CREATOR BROWNING HOLLYWOOD 

ONE ACTOR/ACTRESS/DIRECTOR AND MUSIC ROYALTY AT A TIME)  )

May 27, 1970

Eva Longoria, 

(ACTRESS)

March 15, 1975 

Maya Angelou,

(POET)

April 4, 1928

AUDRE LORDE,

(WRITER/POET/ACTIVIST/SPEAKER) 

February 18, 1934

ALICE WALKER,
(WRITER)

 February 9, 1944

GLORIA ANZALDUA

(WRITER/SOCIOLOGIST)

September 26, 1942

SONIA SHAH 

1969?

HILLARY CLINTON

ATTORNEY/POLITICIAN

October 26, 1947

PATRICIA HILL-COLLINS,
WRITER/SOCIOLOGIST  

May 1 1948

GLORIA STEINHEM, 

(WRITER/ SPEAKER/ MS. MAGAZINE FOUNDER)

March 25, 1934

DOROTHY PITTMAN HUGHES
(WRITER/ SPEAKER/ MS. MAGAZINE FOUNDER)

1938

Amandla Stenberg and Her Mama

(ACTRESS/SPEAKER ACTIVIST)October 23, 1998

PAULA J GIDDINGS  

(WRITER)

November 16 1947

SOJOURNER TRUTH  

(SPEAKER / ACTIVIST)

Born Isabella ("Bell") Baumfree

Born in 1797  

died November 26, 1883 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

(SPEAKER/ABOLITIONIST/ SUPPORTER OF SUFFRAGE)

February 14 (chosen date) 1818  

HARRIET TUBMAN
(UNDERGROUND RAILROAD LEADER)

March ? 1822

MELISSA HARRIS PERRY'S READING LIST

Brown, Nikki. Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal.

Collier-Thomas, Bettye, and V. P. Franklin, eds. Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment.

Cooper, Anna Julia. A Voice From the South.

Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (July 1991): 1241-1299.

Davis, Angela. Women, Race, & Class.

Giddings, Paula. Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells.

Giddings, Paula. When And Where I Enter The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America.

Guy-Shefthall, Beverly. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought.

Harris-Perry, Melissa. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America.

hooks, bell. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.

hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.

Hunter, Tera.  To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War.

James, Stanlie M., Frances Smith Foster, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, eds. Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women’s Studies.

Jordan, June. Some of Us Did Not Die.

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.

Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.

Marby, Marcus. Twice As Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power.

Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down.

Ransby, Barbara. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision.

Richie, Beth. Compelled to Crime: The Gender Entrapment of Battered Black Women.

Shange, Ntozke. For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf.

Shakur, Assata. Assata: An Autobiography.

Smith, Susan L. Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women’s Health Activism in America, 1890-1950.

Theoharis, Jeanne. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.

http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/the-mhp-black-feminism-syllabus?platform=hootsuite